Red Hot News… Possible Nova in Sagittarius!

According to AAVSO Special Notice #164 just sent, there is a possible nova candidate in Sagittarius. It was discovered by Koichi Nishiyama, Kurume, Fukuoka-ken, Japan, and Fujio Kabashima, Miyaki-cho, Saga-ken, Japan, at unfiltered magnitude 7.7 on two 60-second frames taken Aug. 6.494 and 6.495 UT. They confirmed the discovery on five frames taken around Aug. 6.494.

Brian Marsden announces in CBET No. 1899 the independent discovery of a possible nova (Nova Sagittarii 2009 No. 3) by Koichi Nishiyama, Kurume, Fukuoka-ken, Japan, and Fujio Kabashima, Miyaki-cho, Saga-ken, Japan, at unfiltered magnitude 7.7 on two 60-second frames taken Aug. 6.494 and 6.495 UT. They confirmed the discovery on five frames taken around Aug. 6.494. No motion was seen during 80 minutes and nothing was visible at this location down to 12.7 on survey frames taken July 22.531 and 29.584 UT. Nothing was seen on the DSS (POSS2/UKSTU red), or in ASAS, AAVSO VSX, SIMBAD, 2MASS and USNO-B1.0 catalogues, although the USNO-B1.0 shows a faint star (I = 12.45) nearby (at end figures 07.509s, 33.13″). Coordinates (from Nishiyama and Kabashima) are: RA = 18h 07m 07.67s, Dec = -33d 46m 33.9s (2000.0)

Finder Chart 3 Degree FOV

According to Elizabeth Waagen of AAVSO, Grzegorz Pojmanski, Dorota Szczygiel, and Bogumil Pilecki, Warsaw University Astronomical Observatory, observed by ASAS3 at V = 7.78 on Aug. 6.182 UT at the approximate position RA = 18h 07m 08s, Dec = -33d 46.6m. Nothing was visible on Aug. 4.152 UT. Leonid Elenin, Moscow, also confirmed (via vsnet-alert 11371) the presence of the object using a remote astrograph in Pingelly, Australia, providing position end figures 07.67s, 34.9s, +/-0.14″. This object has been assigned the name VSX J180707.6-334633 with the AUID 000-BJP-536. Please report observations to the AAVSO International Database using the name Nova Sgr 2009 No. 3 or VSX J180707.6-334633. The ASAS light curve and images can be accessed here. A sequence has not yet been established for this object, but additional finder charts may be plotted by entering the coordinates into VSP.

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12 Replies to “Red Hot News… Possible Nova in Sagittarius!”

Strange that you point out as discoverers Japanese astronomers even though you point out in the same article that the nova was discovered earlier by a team of Polish astronomers (Aug. 6.182 UT) and only confirmed by Koichi Nishiyama and Fujio Kabashima on Aug. 6.494. I think credit for any discovery should go to people who made it.

Sounds like Nova Sgr 2009 No. 3 was independently discovered by both teams who then notified CBAT with their info. This happens occasionally with comets, supernovae, novae and planetary nebulae (e.g. PN 075.5+1.7 , see story here: http://www.universetoday.com/2009/07/24/giant-soap-bubble-in-space/ ). Think of these teams as co-discoverers 🙂 . Congrats to all involved…:)

Sure – both teams discovered it independently and if it was written like that it would be no problem. But if you read the text it states that the Japanese team did discover the nova, and the other team only observed it (earlier 😉 )… there is a huge difference between observing an event – i do it all the time with my telescope, and no one makes a fuss – and actually discovering it – so far i did not discover anything, maybe except a hot pixel on my camera CCD, which at first made me very happy…

The AAVSO (w-CBET info) announcement of the discovery of Nova Sgr 2009 No. 3 can be found here: http://www.aavso.org/publications/alerts/alert400.shtml . This announcement mentions the timeline of events for the co-discoverers of this nova, along with a confirmational photograph by Leonid Elenin in Moscow. Preliminary positional and photometric observations are also also available on this page. Possibly Tammy’s story could have been better worded, but congrats to Tammy for getting this story out in a timely manner. Thanks for the heads up, Tammy 🙂

thanks for understanding, jon. i caught this and was trying to get it out as soon as possible. i tend to worry more about getting the facts and positions out so people can observe, so i apologize for the confusion.

once i had the information, i put people onto it for some photographic confirmation – and it’s a whole lot more than a hot pixel. check this out:

this was taken by joe brimacombe from his new mexico remote scope less than 24 hours after i notified him of it and the nova is dead center in the frame. pretty daggone noticeable compared to the chart!!

yeah, it does make a difference to who discovered it… and it does count on who observes it and confirms it. but i hope you’ll have patience when all i try to do is make sure you know about it!

Hello Tammy, actually I first posted a comment here, and then found that the wording was taken from the AAVSO Notice #164 so it wasn’t your fault, but rather theirs, and to your benefit – you did take time to answer my comments, and so far i’m still waiting to hear from AAVSO. Keep on great work 🙂

Tammy, thanks for that Brimacombe confirmation photo (just awesome) and extra thanks for going the extra mile (checking with other trusted contacts concerning the validity of these objects) before posting here. Keep up the good work 🙂

no problem, guys. when we start calls here, it’s in the middle of the night waking people up and yelling coordinates into a cell phone. we don’t worry about how we word it until later… and then we realize that we just got cussed out by some guy we woke up in the middle of the night by dialing the wrong number. (old astronomer telephone pranks… we don’t call you up and ask if your refrigerator is running, we call up and start screaming right ascension and declination numbers and then hang up! beats telemarketing… ;))

anyhow, joe brimacombe is hugely dedicated to capturing things like nova, supernova and comets for us – especially when our skies don’t cooperate – so many thanks to AAVSO for alerting us to look and to joe for makin’ it happen, cap’n!